In the current academic year, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools’ total enrollment of roughly 10,700 students is its lowest in two decades. At that time, the district had three fewer schools – with Carrboro High, Morris Grove Elementary and Northside Elementary schools not having opened yet.
Now, the district’s leadership is considering closing two school campuses to best downsize amid those waning enrollment trends and funding challenges.
Continuing a discussion publicly started in 2025, the CHCCS Board of Education began its latest round of feedback on Feb. 5 about how to approach closing a school, with district administrators asking the board to consider outlining its criteria for what data or features to examine with the target of choosing at least one school to shut down for the 2027-28 school year.
Coming into the work session, the district had selected Carrboro Elementary School, Estes Hills Elementary School and Frank Porter Graham Bilingüe Elementary School as its best options for replacement with updated facilities thanks to the 2024 school funding bond. But the board instructed district staff to instead open up the consideration of closure to five schools: Seawell Elementary School, Ephesus Elementary School, Glenwood Elementary School, Estes Hills, and FPG Bilingüe. Following the meeting, Superintendent Rodney Trice and the district contacted families of the identified elementary schools to inform them of the board meeting and discussions.
Board members appeared split on whether to pursue the timeline laid out by administrators and how to best weigh which schools to close. Despite the different perspectives on the matter, two aspects are certain: the district has too many under-utilized elementary school facilities and enrollment continues to drop for that education level. Trice and Deputy Superintendent of Operations Al Ciarochi opened their presentations to the board with data that reflected both of those trends.
“Simply put,” Trice said in his opening comments, “we need newer schools, which our most recent bond helps us achieve, and we need fewer schools, which centers the advancement of the conversation we began this fall. So, our aim tonight is to assist the Board in achieving its goal of making a financially and operationally sustainable and equitable decision regarding school closure by June 30.”
At first blush, the majority of the school board expressed interest in exploring closing two elementary schools at once, with Board Member Rani Dasi as the most vocal member for preferring just one closure. The board also stated its interest in using total cost-saving estimates, cost of maintenance across five years, and transportation demands for students as key criteria it may ask district staff to consider for determining which schools the central administration recommends closing.
Absent from the closure consideration list is Carrboro Elementary School. The school – which features the combination of aging infrastructure with room to construct a new building on adjacent land – has already begun its initial planning and design efforts, with Ciorchi saying the project already used $5.3 million from county pay-go funds. While some Board of Education members shared preferences to maintain the plan to replace FPG Elementary and Estes Hills Elementary, others pointed to funding uncertainty for the Orange County government as it seeks to close a $21.5 million gap in its budget revealed during its Jan. 16 board retreat.
Estes Hills Elementary is one of Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools’ oldest facilities in the district, having been constructed in the 1950s. While the building was picked for replacement with 2024 bond money due to its age, infrastructure costs and proximity to Phillips Middle School, now it’s among the elementary schools considered for total closure. (Photo by the Chapel Hill Media Group.)
Board Members Dasi and Meredith Ballew voiced reticence at maintaining the plan shared in 2024 around the $175 million in bond funding with the county’s own funding plans potentially shifting and the cost of construction potentially eliminating the opportunity to fully fund a third replacement school building.
Dasi also said she found Trice’s recommended timeline of deciding which schools to close by June 30 and how to transition those communities to new homes before the 2027-28 academic year to be “extremely aggressive.” She urged both the board and CHCCS administration to “build flexibility” into the timeline and consider staggering the closure of two schools to limit the change.
“We’re talking about two schools, 800 students,” said Dasi. “The district has other priorities we have to manage. We’re going to have to create a redistricting plan for all 800, manage all the programming shifts, rethink transportation, build school schedules, communicate to families where their kids are going to go… I just think the feasibility of this is something that we have to [question].”
Most other board members, though, cited the required redistricting necessary around a school closure as reason to close two at once. Trice also discussed this, saying the communication to all CHCCS stakeholders about this process will be critical because of its widespread effects.
“If the board decides to close a school or two schools, it will impact our entire district because we will have to go through a redistricting process,” said the superintendent. “We want to – as we did earlier this fall [with enrollment trend open houses] – help carry our community through what that potentially could look like, but also get feedback on what the needs are concerning redistricting because it will impact all of [us].”
Board Member Barbara Fedders said she believes the current influence on Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents is part of the reason behind her support of the timeline of proposed closure – and doing what’s necessary to make the school system’s spending more efficient.
“An issue that I’ve been thinking about a lot that I haven’t heard come up [tonight],” Fedders said, “is how many people who live in our district, who pay these high taxes, who don’t have kids who go [to CHCCS.] And I am finding it’s hard to say, ‘We’re being fiscally responsible with your taxpayer dollars,’ and we got a bunch of schools at 65-70% [capacity].
“That really bothers me as an elected official [who is] accountable not just to parents, but to everybody who lives here,” she added.
Board Chair Riza Jenkins added that she wants to be accountable both to future CHCCS students and those who participated in crafting the 2024 bond plan, sharing her preference to keep the trio of elementary schools selected for replacement with bond funding as is.
“We no longer have time to go back and revisit, and reopen things, and tear up this community while we fight over ‘this school is better for this reason, or that,'” said Jenkins. “We can’t do that: we are here for our kids, and we have to show up as board members and buckle down. We’re not going to make a perfect decision, we’re going to try to make the best decision based on the information we have.
“For me, [Orange County’s budget gap of] $21 million doesn’t change [the schools],” the chair concluded. “It just changes the urgency of what we have to do and asking our staff to work on a more compressed timeline.”
Additionally, Trice said while examining facility operations is a key step to addressing CHCCS’ recent enrollment and funding trends, looking at staff operations to “right-size” the district will still be done once these school decisions are made – potentially continuing a reduction in force started in 2024 to cut back the annual operating and administrative costs amid a lack of fund balance.
Last Thursday’s discussion saw several community members of elementary schools show up to speak during public comment and show support by wearing their schools’ respective colors. Ephesus Elementary and Glenwood Elementary had the biggest contingencies, with parents and educators making pitches about how the geography, programs and character of their schools are too valuable to close.
The speeches were punctuated by President of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Association of Educators Brian Link – who said while he was not going to advocate for one school over another, he wanted the board to consider three things as it continues to weigh its options.
“One: as you heard tonight, our students, staff and families need clarity and certainty,” said Link. “A school closing is not only a huge undertaking, but it’s also a traumatic event. The sooner we can prepare our students and caregivers, both in schools and at home, of what will transpire, the better off we all psychologically will be. And we know that if we do not take action, that we’re going to face another [reduction in force] and that simply cannot happen.
“Second,” the East Chapel Hill High School educator continued, “as you’ve heard tonight, the administration and board need to make decisions based on data that is clearly communicated to all that are impacted. Show the work, outline the utilization rates, demonstrate the savings that are expected, and make sure that your decision is transparent. We all need and have to buy into a path forward, as hard as it might be. And we believe that the heart of CHCCS – its students, families and staff – if the case presented is valid and reliable.
“Finally, our community needs to see the forest as well as the trees,” Link concluded. “We need to know where we’re going, not just what we’re pivoting from, but what we’re pivoting toward, so that the trade-offs and opportunity costs can be property evaluated.”
Since the Feb. 5 meeting was a work session, the CHCCS Board of Education took no formal action as part of its discussion – but is set to revisit and potentially finalize its criteria for district staff to use when examining schools for closure during its meeting on Feb. 19.
Featured image via Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools’ livestream.
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